5th Edition Tyranid Codex Review, Part 1
Robot Viking commenter ggodo (aka Billy Gibbs — no, not the dude from ZZ Top, that’s Billy Gibbons) unleashes a horde of hideous alien warriors on us today with his review of the latest Tyranid Codex for Warhammer 40K. The review is so intense we had to break it into two parts just so you would survive reading it.
I get the impression that the average Viking doesn’t play Warhammer of any flavor so I’m going to give a brief description of the Tyranids. Picture H.R. Giger’s famous Alien horror icon; now imagine it smarter, scarier, and with a brilliant tactical mind behind it breeding the biggest and scariest variations it can imagine. That’s the Tyranids, bred for war and existing only to feed on the next planet. The recent Tyranid Codex updates the army for the Fifth Edition rules of Warhammer 40K. In addition to tweaking abilities and rules to better fit Fifth, the book also adds new units and brings back the old Tyranid “hero” units that the last edition did away with in favor of a more uniform swarm.
Beginning with the returning units, we have an amazingly upgraded Hive Tyrant. The bug equivalent of a general, the new hive tyrant is a close combat monster in its default form. With the new Bonesword the Tyrant’s close combat attacks cause unsavable wounds in close combat and comes with your choice of two psychic powers out of four options. Add this to weapon skill 8 and you have something that slaughters anyone near it. Leech Essence looks like the winner of the bunch, D3 strength 3 AP2 hits on a unit within 12” and you heal for how much you hurt them. Paroxysm reduces a unit’s Ballistics and Weapon skills to 1 until the Tyrant’s last turn. The Horror can break morale, but it doesn’t seem like the best one to use when you could take Paroxysm instead. Psychic Scream hits a 2D6 radius, forcing all enemy units in the area to take a leadership test. Those units take unsavable wounds for each point they fail the test by. If you really want all the abilities take The Swarmlord. He inflicts Instant Death with every wound has an 18” Synapse range, gets all four Tyrant abilities and can use two of them per turn. Very amazing, very expensive, very worth it.
Termagaunts have had the points value on two guns swapped. Hormagaunts got a points reduction, but traded leaping for Fleet and a better Run. Whether or not that was worth it will be determined in the long run. The Warriors now count as Troops so the Tyranids finally have a fairly durable option for holding objectives. This is something I’ve been waiting for my entire, admittedly short, Warhammer career. I love this. These Troops combined with a unit I’ll get to later could possibly be one of the most impenetrable defenses available to the ‘Nids. Genestealers are a little cheaper, still Troops, but the Broodlord is now an upgrade to a Genestealer unit instead of an independent character on his own. The good news is that the Stealers don’t lose Fleet when you take him; the bad news is he’s no longer a Synapse Creature. Overall, I think the New Broodlord is an improvement over the old.
Lictors still pop out of terrain, but they can’t assault after Deep Strike anymore, to help alleviate this they have a 6” shooting attack. His gun hits decently hard and has rending, so I think that it could cause some damage. The downside is that the Lictor is a close combat unit, and it really helps if they get the charge on their target. The Lictor can’t do that anymore, which reduces his effectiveness, especially for its old purpose of tying up shooting units hiding in cover. Pop up, assault, and keep the guns tied up for a turn or two. Now I see it as Pop up, shoot, and either get charged or watch your target run away.
Gargoyles’ primary improvement is the fact that they’re finally plastic. These guys have large unit sizes, but used to be expensive metal models so no one used them. Other than that they haven’t had much change other than they always hit on a 6. Zoanthropes got fewer options, but probably got an improvement out of the changes. They hit tanks harder and no longer have to take a psychic test for their Warp Lance, and the Lance ability lets it hit harder, plus the Warp Field gives it a 3+ invulnerable save. It’s synapse, I’m using it. The Carnifex got adjusted for better close combat at the expense of its shooting ability. I am slightly miffed by this because my Carnifexes are now no longer legal. Oh well, they’re just going to have to proxy for some of the newer stuff. They got a 12” range blast and the close combat capabilities to SMASH EVERYTHING!
Biovores have returned, new and improved, due to the fact that Spore Mines no longer count for kill points. Last month Biovores were the greatest scoring unit your opponent ever had. It spits out kill points! Rippers are back too, still strange, still Mindless, still not worth the Troops slot because it can’t take objectives, and that’s all Troops are good for.
Next week we’ll have part 2, featuring all the new Tyranid units.
Related posts:
January 21st, 2010 3:42 PM
I may not have that beard *puts on his Cheap Sunglasses* but I sure am a Sharp Dressed Man.
January 21st, 2010 3:56 PM
Every time I’d get a message from you, I was like, “Why is the guy from ZZ Top emailing me?”
January 21st, 2010 11:14 PM
Talk about the story! I really like hearing about 40k. I may not play, but the over-the-top world building is super hilarious & great. I’ve ALWAYS been a tyranid fan; but then, I have a way inappropriate crush on Giger’s Aliens…
January 24th, 2010 9:18 PM
Zergling rush?
Thanks for the review, look forward to part 2.
January 25th, 2010 3:25 AM
Mordicai, the plot never moves, ever. If Ed doesn’t mind too much, there may need to be three parts to decently handle the fluff on the ‘hero’ bugs. The overall plot, especially for the Tyranids, is pretty much OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT!OHSHIT! MARINES FUCKYEA!
Although, for a while The Tau had fought the Tyranids once, slaughtered the bugs without losing a man. That got psuedo-retconned, but I thought it was pretty much perfect fluff-wise. Bugs fall from sky, get blown to bits by the best airforce and ranged weapons in the universe before actually hitting anyone.
January 25th, 2010 3:46 PM
A third awesome article on alien warlords? Oh, I don’t think I’ll mind too much.
January 25th, 2010 5:51 PM
Alrighty then. More fluff incoming. Just as soon as I get through this math. . .
January 26th, 2010 11:17 PM
The Tau are the anime mechs that came after I stopped paying attention, right? The ones right before the lightsaber skeletons?
I assume you read the SomethingAwful 40k article?
January 27th, 2010 4:24 AM
No I haven’t. I don’t spend much time around Something Awful. The Tau have the mech suits, I haven’t the foggiest idea what the lightsaber skeletons are. Necrons?
January 27th, 2010 9:00 AM
Great review so far… I’ve been dying to get back into 40K and I’ve always wanted a hive… I think now may be the time for that…
January 28th, 2010 8:07 AM
Well you made the right choice not spending time around Something Awful. You don’t want to head-desk yourself to death. The article on 40k is worth checking out. Warning: swear words!
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/dungeons-and-dragons/wtf-warhammer-40k.php
January 28th, 2010 3:02 PM
I’m hoping to get review part 2 done over the weekend, I’ve had unusually large workloads these past weeks. It’s been hard to have any free time.
February 1st, 2010 3:12 PM
In an effort to continue the ZZ Top references, I’ve bee Under Pressure, So you better Give me All Your Loving when part two comes out.